Young people in care’s perspective on their psychological adjustment as an addition to the BERRI questionnaire by Amy Malone

Children Looked After (CLA) are known to be a vulnerable group with high levels of psychological need and potential for adverse adult outcomes. Given these factors and the ever-increasing demand and pressures on children’s social care, the need for effective mental health provision for this group has never been more evident. An integral part of such provision is outcome measurement. Outcome measures are tools that can be used to identify and quantify psychological need, understand the effectiveness of interventions and services, and hold practitioners to account. There are a range of measures currently used across the sector, but many have significant shortcomings when it comes to their use with care experienced young people. BERRI is a tool that was designed by clinical psychology professionals specifically for use with the CLA population. However, its current design relies entirely on perspectives of parents or carers, rather than eliciting the perspective of the young person themselves. This is at odds with increasing awareness and policy focus regarding the inclusion and empowerment of CLA voices in decisions made about their care. The present study therefore aimed to gather care experienced perspectives on their psychological adjustment as an addition to the BERRI questionnaire. The specific research question was: What observable markers do young people in care think indicate strengths or improvement/deterioration in their psychological wellbeing? After consultation with a care-experienced panel, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight individuals who were either currently in care or recent care leavers. Thematic analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts and five superordinate themes were created: Strong and Stable Relationships, Coping with Adversity, A Sense of Agency, Control of Emotions and Behaviour and Interests and Talents. These findings are discussed in the context of the existing literature and their implications for practice and future research.